IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bba/j00001/v4y2025i1p83-106d344.html

What drives strategic Corporate Social Responsibility?

Author

Listed:
  • Rania Béji

    (CEPN, University Sorbonne Paris Nord, Paris, France)

  • Ouidad Yousfi

    (University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France)

Abstract

This study examines the role of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee (CSRC) in the adoption of strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects that surpass regulatory requirements and basic stakeholder expectations. Our results demonstrate that the establishment of CSRCs enhances all strategic CSR mechanisms, particularly business reputation, stakeholder interaction, risk mitigation, and innovation. Additionally, strategic CSR practices exhibit a strong correlation with CSRC attributes and organizational characteristics. Specifically, the size of the CSRC is positively associated with all dimensions of strategic CSR. Furthermore, CEO membership is likely to impede risk mitigation and innovation capacity, whereas board chair membership enhances business reputation, stakeholder communication, and innovation potential. In terms of gender diversity, female CSRC members show a greater concern for business reputation and associated risks. Regarding committee functioning, increased meeting frequency has the potential to enhance various aspects of strategic CSR.

Suggested Citation

  • Rania Béji & Ouidad Yousfi, 2025. "What drives strategic Corporate Social Responsibility?," Journal of Economic Analysis, Anser Press, vol. 4(1), pages 83-106, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bba:j00001:v:4:y:2025:i:1:p:83-106:d:344
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/4/1/91/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/4/1/91
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Darren D. Lee & Robert W. Faff, 2009. "Corporate Sustainability Performance and Idiosyncratic Risk: A Global Perspective," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 44(2), pages 213-237, May.
    2. Sinziana Dorobantu & Kate Odziemkowska, 2017. "Valuing Stakeholder Governance: Property Rights, Community Mobilization, and Firm Value," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(13), pages 2682-2703, December.
    3. Graham, John R. & Grennan, Jillian & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shivaram, 2022. "Corporate culture: Evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 552-593.
    4. Rachel Bocquet & Christian Le Bas & Caroline Mothe & Nicolas Poussing, 2017. "CSR, Innovation, and Firm Performance in Sluggish Growth Contexts: A Firm-Level Empirical Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 241-254, November.
    5. Liao, Lin & Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2015. "Gender diversity, board independence, environmental committee and greenhouse gas disclosure," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 409-424.
    6. Assâad El Akremi & Jean-Pascal Gond & Valérie Swaen & Kenneth de Roeck & Jacques Igalens, 2018. "How Do Employees Perceive Corporate Responsibility? Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Corporate Stakeholder Responsibility Scale," Post-Print halshs-01520959, HAL.
    7. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    8. Sun, Wenbin & Cui, Kexiu, 2014. "Linking corporate social responsibility to firm default risk," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 275-287.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rania Béji & Ouidad Yousfi, 0. "What drives strategic Corporate Social Responsibility?," Journal of Economic Analysis, Anser Press, vol. 0(1), pages 1-1.
    2. Asif Saeed & Robert Sroufe, 2021. "Performance, Risk, and Cost of Capital: Trends and Opportunities for Future CSR Research," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-20, December.
    3. Adewole Olukorede, 2025. "Stakeholder engagement and participation in environmental contexts, social responsibility and society based on a study conducted in Rome, Italy," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-45, December.
    4. Filip Hampl & Dagmar Vágnerová Linnertová, 2025. "How the interaction between board gender diversity and ESG shapes dividend policy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 2472-2490, March.
    5. Barroso, Raúl & Duan, Tinghua & Guo, Siyue (Sarina) & Kowalewski, Oskar, 2024. "Board gender diversity reform and corporate carbon emissions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Meles, Antonio & Salerno, Dario & Sampagnaro, Gabriele & Verdoliva, Vincenzo & Zhang, Jianing, 2023. "The influence of green innovation on default risk: Evidence from Europe," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 692-710.
    7. Ali Uyar & Habiba Al-Shaer & Cemil Kuzey & Abdullah S. Karaman, 2026. "Board characteristics and aggressive CSR engagement: Do CSR committees provoke or restrain?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 269-311, January.
    8. Li, Wenquan & Neupane, Suman & Tan, Kelvin Jui Keng, 2025. "Environmental externalities of corporate culture: Evidence from firm pollution," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(5).
    9. Francisco Díez-Martín & Giorgia Miotto & Cristina Del-Castillo-Feito, 2024. "The intellectual structure of gender equality research in the business economics literature," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1649-1680, June.
    10. Malik, Ihtisham A. & Chowdhury, Hasibul & Alam, Md Samsul, 2023. "Equity market response to natural disasters: Does firm's corporate social responsibility make difference?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    11. Nhat Minh Tran & Thu Thuy Nguyen & Thi Phuong Linh Nguyen & Anh Trong Vu & Thi Thanh Hoa Phan & Thi Hong Tham Nguyen & Ngoc Diep Do & Anh Tuan Phan, 2022. "Female Managers and Corruption in SMEs: A Comparison Between Family and Nonfamily SMEs in Vietnam," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    12. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Bhuiyan, Md Borhan Uddin & Taylor, Grantley, 2025. "Reprint of: Corporate culture and carbon emission performance," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(1).
    13. Luong, Hoa & Khedmati, Mehdi & Nguyen, Lan Anh & Nigmonov, Asror & Ovi, Nafisa Zabeen & Shams, Syed, 2023. "CEO-director ties and board gender diversity: US evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    14. Hafiz Muhammad Awais & Danish Ahmed Siddiqui, 2020. "Boards' Gender Diversity and Firms' Financial and Ethical Performance in Pakistan: A Comparative Analysis," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 10(3), pages 255-280, September.
    15. Stephen J. Smulowitz & Didier Cossin & Hongze Lu, 2023. "Managerial Short-Termism and Corporate Social Performance: The Moderating Role of External Monitoring," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 188(4), pages 759-778, December.
    16. Wu, Qiang & Dbouk, Wassim & Hasan, Iftekhar & Kobeissi, Nada & Zheng, Li, 2021. "Does gender affect innovation? Evidence from female chief technology officers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    17. Haifei Wang & Hongjun Wu & Peter Humphreys, 2022. "Chinese Merchant Group Culture, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Cost of Debt: Evidence from Private Listed Firms in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Garcia-Blandon, Josep & Josep Maria, Argilés-Bosch & Diego, Ravenda, 2024. "Female directors and the firm's cost of debt: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 224-232.
    19. Minghui Yang & Yan Wang & Lu Bai & Petra Maresova, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility, family involvement, and stock price crash risk," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1204-1225, May.
    20. Saeed, Abubakr & Riaz, Hammad & Liedong, Tahiru Azaaviele & Rajwani, Tazeeb, 2022. "The impact of TMT gender diversity on corporate environmental strategy in emerging economies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 536-551.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bba:j00001:v:4:y:2025:i:1:p:83-106:d:344. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ramona Wang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.anserpress.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.